Method for producing artificial food casing



Aug. 25, 1959 w. F. UNDERWOOD ETAL 2,901,358

METHOD FOR PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL FOOD C ASING Filed Feb. 25, 1958INVENTORS WILLIAM F. UNDERWOOD HOWARD L. LEVENTHAL WXTW ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent ce METHOD FOR PRODUCING ARTIFICIAL FOOD CASING William F.Underwood, Oak Park, and Howard L. Leventhal, Melrose Park, Ill.,assignors to Union Carbide Corporation, a corporation of New YorkApplication February 25, 1958, Serial No. 717,476

12 Claims. (Cl. 99-176) This invention relates to food casings andmethods for preparing them. More particularly, the invention is directedto a method for preparing food casings which can be readily removed fromfood encased therein and to the food casing produced by said method.

Cellulosic food casings used in thesausage industry are multifunctionalin that they can be used as containers during the processing of theproduct and as protective wrapping for the finished product. Thecasingis often removed from the sausage after processing and the sausagesliced and repacked into smaller units. When the casing is removed fromthe meat mass there is frequently a tendency for some meat to adhere tothe casing and be torn from the sausage with the casing, thereby causingsurface marring of the sausage. The marring may range from minorscuffing to severe scarring depending upon the type of meat product andconditions of processing and peeling.

It is an object of this invention to provide a method for producing afood casing which can be easily removed from the food mass encasedtherein.

Another object of this invention is to provide a food casing which canbe easily removed from the food mass.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparenthereinafter. I

According to the present invention, the inner surface of acellulosesausage casing is coated with a chemical composition containingfunctional groups capable of reacting with the cellulose and the casingis then dried to cause such reaction and to form a permanent bondbetween the composition andthe casing.

Following the glycerination, the tubing passes between squeeze rolls 13which minimize any solution carry over, and act as guide rolls to directthe casing to guide roll 14. After passing over guide rolls 14 and 15,the casing passes through a lower pair of driven squeeze rolls16 and anupper pair of driven squeeze rolls 18. The chemical composition 17 iscontained within the casing .be-

tween squeeze rolls 16 and 18. The lower squeeze rolls 16 act as a sealto maintain the comp osition 17 inside the casing at the desired pointof travel.

. The pressure exerted on the casing by the upper squeeze rolls 18prevents any excess carry over of the composition 17.

Thechemical composition 17' is introduced into the;

casing by cutting the casing in two at a point between squeeze rolls 16and 18 and inserting the desired amount 2,901,358 Patented Aug. 25, 1959rolls 16 and 18, successive portions of the inside surface of the casingcontact the chemical composition 17 and are coated therewith. The volumeof composition will be decreased as the casing is coated. The rate oftravel of the casing, the initial concentration of the composition 17and the rate of exhaustion of the composition 17 are factors thatdetermine the amount of composition with which the inside surface of thecasing will be coated and the frequency with which the composition willrequire replenishing.

Following the coating of the inner surface of the casing and its passagethrough squeeze rolls 18, it is passed over guide roll 19, throughdriven squeeze rolls 20 and into a heating chamber 21 wherein it isdried to the proper moisture content. The casing is inflated by a bubbleof air maintained in a relatively fixed position between squeeze rolls2i and 22 by the sealing action of rolls 20 and 22. The heating chamber21 can beany type of heating device which will dry the sausage casing tothe proper moisture content. Circulating hot air is preferred.

After the casing passes out of the heating chamber 21 and throughsqueeze rolls 22, it passes over guide roll 23 and is Wound up on reel24.

It is obvious that the method of the invention admits of many apparatusarrangements other than thatshown in the figure without departing fromthe principle of the invention.

Cellulosic sausage casings produced by the viscose process, thedenitration of nitrocellulose or the deesterification of. cellulose fiters may be coated according to the invention. Other cellulosicmaterials, such as cellulose ethers like hydroxy ethyl cellulose mayalso be coated. The use of a cellulosic casing containing. an embeddedpaper web in which the fibers are bonded with regenerated cellulose orresins is preferred. In one method of producing such casings, viscose isapplied to one or both sides of a tube formed by curving a thin,long-fibered paper strip about its longitudinal axis with overlappinglongitudinal margins, and, then the tubing is treated to coagulate andregenerate the viscose. A paper formed ofl hemp fibers bonded togetherwith regenerated cellulose is preferred as the fibrous base tubing.Other non-woven webs, such as Yoshino paper, rice paper, hemp, rayon,.

,cotton and nylon; and woven fabrics, such as muslin,

' marquisette, cheesecloth, organdy and voile maybe used.

The sausage casing, after 'glycerination and. prior to drying, is in thegel form. It is preferred to apply the composition to the sausage casingwhile his in the gel form to assure a more uniformproduct.

The preferred chemical composition for coating sausage V casings isawater-soluble chromium-stearic "acid complex of the Werner type inwhich a trivalent nuclear chromium atom is coordinated with a stcaricacid group. This composition can be properly called stearato chromic"chloride. The suff x ato is added to the first portion of the name,stearicacid, to indicate that'itjhas become a functional acido group inthe complex. This com-i position isto bedistinguished from the normalchromic 'surface of the' sausage' without appreciably fur her-"re" 3ducing the force necessary to strip the casing from the sausage. Animprovement in peeling chafactei'isticsis' obtained by coating theinterior walls of the cellulosic sa ge asin rvtitha aq icv ss o hatin a.c n- Of ,1 est Per n b weight" s a 91? The opinion quantity or Qqating9; s mini c hos skil ed fnthe The, t t ils stre gth tr n paren y; e sticty ml m per nca ty ott c casin ar 'subst a y mi ha tscEl ,sls oft tt psllin char ct cs illustrate the invention the'following examples are etQfth b t t e n en n s 9 im e nv s ope these examples; i i

In the examples, regenerated cellulose casing containing a paper webembedded therein, commonly known as fibrous casing, was coatedinternally with the indicated compositions. The casings were thenstuffed with a bologna meat'emulsion of veal, pork, beef, dried powder,salt, spices, sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite and then processed asknown in the art by heat} ingand smoking to an internal temperature of1,47 F.'-150 F. After smoking, the sausage was hot showered, coldshowered and stored overnight at 30 F. Stripping tests were runthe'morning after theprocessing.

The force required to strip thefc'asing from the sausage was determinedby making two cuts in the lcasing, l apart, parallel to the longitudinalaXis' of the sausage and measuring the amount of force necessary to pullthe l widestrip fromthe sausage. This was done by,

making a third cut perpendicularly across the two parallel cuts, freeinga segment of'the strip ofcasing and measuring theaverage'force necessaryto pull the rest of the 1" strip :from' the sausage with a spring loadedscale hooked to, the casing with an alligator clip A measure of thisforce is an indication 'of the tendency for the casing to adhere to themeat mass.

EXAMPLES 1 ro v Cg; 9 and dried toa final moisture level (if/1% to, 6%.The casings selected for istrippingtests were selected from those coatedduring the first minutes 'of each The results are shownin Table 1L Table1 run to minimize changes in the coating concentration.

Stripping Force In Pounds Percent by weight of Stearato- OhromioChloride Erample No.

0.0 (Control) use 0.75 v 11.00 1.25

.j'ljhe ahove examples ishow that coating the inside of a f oodcasingvwith a chemical composition .of the "type indicated lessenstheantount of force required to strip the casing trorn the food encasedtherein. and therefore the tendeney f th food toadher to the casing andbe tiensta l ,ss ss j 111 s esca es ea-ea s ts can an re t w th utanybss ii'thc c tescoating the int'erior walls of said cellulosicsausage casl4 certain concentrations of the chemical composition arefHBE pI'ef'effcdI'although the invention will eperatebver a wide rangeof concentrations. The optimum concentration of chemical compositionwill vary with other prevailing conditions and can be readily determinedby those skilled in the art by simple empirical tests.

The food casings produced by the method described herein re. adia ab viel fa se t e assassins and packaging of meat prodnets," for example,sausages and processed meats sneh as bologna, beer sausage, salami, saua ry sausa t tiiis t -t hamsfafiadiaifi ba qa butts; p rk butt picn cs jso etc. The method is'notliniited to casings fonrrie'at products'but maybeuse'd'as wellwith casings for cheese and other foods which requireproeessing' or distribution in casings.

Skinless frankfurters may also be produced by the meth d o re en iaytian yt n the ns r i i a e w ith e r nn fieeiae a c lesse by' nqki gandh at n n en r mo g he asin s' qni th fm c frankrfurte ster du may be? dstr buted to the e m ving e o ed asins- Ths'l 'q r s ng t the fran strte will. all w l s on umer op l i o t we; ca n wi out warri g I 1? s ca med is;

A m tho cq u na a ar ifi ial m a c ly s p e fr m the mea mass cnca t 1-,r t V. s s at n the Wa l: Ma d asin stcbenearss ai iii afmass' V V hlb'ide; and therea t r in v. D t d cas the meat mass encased therein, whichcompriseseoa tigig the interior Wall of said casing withstearatdchr'hrrric "4. Atnethod of producing an artificial sausagecasing easily separable from the sausage mass encased therein, whichcomprises coating the'interior wall of" said easing. with" anaqueoussolution of stearato chromi'c chleride', and thereafter dryingsaid internally coated casing to 'a moisture content of not morethanabout 10% by weight. '5. A method of producing a cellnlo sic foodcasing'hav ing a reduced tendency to adhere to'the'food rn'ass" encasedtherein, which comprises coating the'interior of said sausage casingwith at least 'an 0.l percent by Weight solution in water of stearato'chromic chloride, and thereatter d'rying said internally coated casing'to 'a moisture content of not more thanabout 10% by weight. A me'thodof producing a' cellulosic sausage casing having a paper web embeddedtherein, which ehmprise's coating th'ei'nterio'r walls'of saidcellulosic sausage c'asings with an aqueous solution of stearatochrornic chloride, and thereafter'drying saidinterrially coated casingtoefiiect' a' permanent bond between said'casing' said M tch a at shrqmt c l tisle an here fte r s' said internally coatedcasi'ng' to erred:apern ai ent bo d between saidcasing and sa d coating.

8., A method of producing a cellulosic 3 53356 casing having a paperwebembedded therein, which -c'ornpr s; t) J nta,

chemically combined with a stearato chromic chloride 10 composition.

11. A substantially tubular cellulosic food casing characterized in thatthe inner wall of said casing is chemically combined with a stearatochromic chloride composition.

12. The cellulosic food casing of claim 10 characterized in that a paperweb is embedded therein.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS IlerFeb. 17, 1942 Schnecko July 7, 1942 Iler Oct. 10, 1950 Weingand et a1.May 24, 1955 Milne July 29, 1958

1. A METHOD OF PRODUCING AN ARTIFICIAL MEAT CASING EASILY SEPARABLE FORMTHE MEAT MASS ENCASED THEREIN, WHICH COMPRISES COATING THE WALL OF SAIDCASING WHICH IS TO BE NEAREST SAID MEAT MASS WITH STEARATO CHROMICCHLORIDE, AND THEREAFTER DRYING SAID COATED CASING